National Gallery of Art | Talks podcast

National Gallery of Art | Talks

Messages, meanings, movements—how does art history help us understand our world? Join curators, historians, artists, musicians and filmmakers as they explore art and its histories in a search for our shared humanity. Download the programs, then visit us on the National Mall or at www.nga.gov, where you can explore many of the works of art mentioned.

Messages, meanings, movements—how does art history help us understand our world? Join curators, historians, artists, musicians and filmmakers as they explore art and its histories in a search for our shared humanity. Download the programs, then visit us on the National Mall or at www.nga.gov, where you can explore many of the works of art mentioned.

 

#1002

Howardena Pindell on Social Change

Howardena Pindell discusses how social issues and the prospect of societal change impact her art and life. In her artistic practice, Pindell’s work reflects a fascination with gridded, serialized imagery and surface texture. She often employs lengthy, metaphorical processes of destruction/reconstruction. Even in her more politically charged work, Pindell reverts to these thematic focuses to address issues of homelessness, AIDS, war, genocide, sexism, xenophobia, and apartheid. Watch the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zcw9iriBvU Learn more about Howardena Pindell’s work in the Gallery’s collection: https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.10097.html Pindell’s work “Free, White and 21" is featured in “The Double,” on view July 10–October 31, 2022: https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2022/the-double-identity-and-difference-in-art-since-1900.html The Elson Lecture Series features distinguished contemporary artists who are represented in the Gallery's permanent collection. The Honorable and Mrs. Edward E. Elson generously endowed this series in 1992. Find out more about the Elson Lecture Series on our website: https://www.nga.gov/audio-video/elson.html Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels?    National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS   National Gallery of Art Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

12 Aug 2022

51 MINS

51:22

12 Aug 2022


#1001

Season 2, Episode 8: Sonia De Los Santos and Auguste Renoir’s “Young Spanish Woman with a Guitar”

Guitarist Sonia De Los Santos hails from Mexico, where as a child she was exposed to different musical influences. In Auguste Renoir’s “Young Spanish Woman with a Guitar,” De Los Santos sees echoes of her younger self. Her song “Sueña” is an ode to dreams. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

31 May 2022

51 MINS

51:22

31 May 2022


#1000

Season 2, Episode 7: Maria Schneider and George Bellows’s “The Lone Tenement”

Maria Schneider composed “Bulería, Soleá y Rumba” in the wake of a cancer diagnosis. Inspired by American artists such as Robert Henri and George Bellows, Schneider discusses “art for life’s sake” that tells a story of people—like the evocative figures in Bellows’s The Lone Tenement. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

17 May 2022

51 MINS

51:22

17 May 2022


#999

Season 2: Episode 6: Delfeayo Marsalis and Hawkins Bolden’s “Untitled”

This work reminds jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis of the proud, hard-working generations that raised him. A history of struggle may suggest the minor key, but Marsalis ultimately chose upbeat music to celebrate those who fought and made it work. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

03 May 2022

51 MINS

51:22

03 May 2022


#998

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2022: Afro-Atlantic Histories, S...

Clint Smith, Renée Stout, and Hank Willis Thomas present on the role of history and memory in shaping American culture and identity. This is the third talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooked narratives wrought by the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies. Watch the entire video by Hank Willis Thomas titled “A Person is More Important Than Anything Else…,” commissioned by NY Live Arts for the Year of James Baldwin: https://hankwillisthomas.com/WORKS/Video/2 Watch the lecture: https://youtu.be/oM6_4MmmzJU ... Read more

28 Apr 2022

51 MINS

51:22

28 Apr 2022


#997

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2022: Afro-Atlantic Histories, S...

Erica Buddington, Nona Faustine, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers present archival research–based practices that create and uplift missing narratives. This is the second talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooked narratives wrought by the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies. Watch the video: https://youtu.be/36aA_Mg7IZA ... Read more

27 Apr 2022

51 MINS

51:22

27 Apr 2022


#996

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2022: Afro-Atlantic Histories, S...

Artists Rosana Paulino and Cameron Rowland explore the lasting legacy of slavery in their works of art. This is the first talk of the three-part series "John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories," which gathers literary and visual artists to reflect on how art responds to and shapes both official and overlooked narratives wrought by the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies. Watch the lecture: https://youtu.be/5n90V4Acg_w ... Read more

26 Apr 2022

51 MINS

51:22

26 Apr 2022


#995

Season 2, Episode 3: Sa-Roc and Margaret Burroughs’s Sleeping Boy

Rapper Sa-Roc’s music speaks to different aspects of Black experience, including the vulnerability of many Black kids—similar to the boy in Margaret Burroughs’s linocut, who hides himself. Her song “Forever” invites listeners not to hide, but to shine and share their “inner light” with the world. Find full transcript and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/sa-roc-margaret-burroughs-sleeping-boy.html Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

22 Apr 2022

51 MINS

51:22

22 Apr 2022


#994

Season 2: Episode 5: Peter Sheppard Skærved and Hieronymus Bosch’s “Death and the Miser”

Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and National Gallery director Kaywin Feldman discuss Hieronymus Bosch’s “Death and the Miser” and its symbolism of contrast: light and dark, life and death. Skærved plays a 17th-century violin sonatina that echoes similar contrasts of sensuality and fatality, beauty and mortality. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

22 Apr 2022

51 MINS

51:22

22 Apr 2022


#993

Season 2, Episode 4: Daniel Ho and Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life series

Musician Daniel Ho spent much of his childhood on the water, so he relates to Thomas Cole’s river paintings. Ho responds to Voyage of Life with an original suite. Starting with simple harmonies to represent childhood, he gradually introduces complexity. Find full transcript and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/daniel-ho-thomas-cole-voyage-life-series.html Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

05 Apr 2022

51 MINS

51:22

05 Apr 2022


#992

Season 2: Episode 2: Jenny Scheinman and El Greco’s "Laocoön"

In “Sand Dipper,” jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman creates an abstract and overwhelming world. This music, Scheinman says, sounds how El Greco’s painting looks. And it feels like the question on Laocoön’s face as he looks up for the last time. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

08 Mar 2022

51 MINS

51:22

08 Mar 2022


#991

Season 2: Episode 1: Dom Flemons and Marc Chagall’s "Orphée"

Orphée depicts many tragedies, but songwriter Dom Flemons finds the joy in it: it resolves in the beautiful scene of two lovers embracing. Flemons pairs it with the tranquil “Blue Butterfly.” The instrumental song helps the emotional weight sink in. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

22 Feb 2022

51 MINS

51:22

22 Feb 2022


#990

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2021: Session I: An Evening Cele...

Presentations on Thomas’s studio art training and involvement with galleries, museums, and universities by Renee Maurer, Nell Irvin Painter, and Rebecca VanDiver, followed with discussion moderated by Steven Nelson Renee Maurer, associate curator, The Phillips Collection, and coordinating curator for Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful; Nell Irvin Painter, artist, Edwards Professor of American History Emerita, Princeton University, and Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor; and Rebecca VanDiver, assistant professor of African American art, Dean's Faculty Fellow (2019–2021), Mellon Faculty Fellow in Digital Humanities (2020–2021), Vanderbilt University, and Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor. Moderated by Steven Nelson, dean, the Center (Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts), National Gallery of Art. Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy: https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

25 Jan 2022

51 MINS

51:22

25 Jan 2022


#989

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2021: Alma W. Thomas: Everything...

Elizabeth Alexander, poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, cultural advocate, and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, discuss their connections to Thomas’s life and work. This conversation was filmed at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery while Alternative Worlds, a group exhibition featuring the work of Alma Thomas, was on view. Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

25 Jan 2022

51 MINS

51:22

25 Jan 2022


#988

American University’s Feminist Art History Conference 2021: Feminist Issues in Art Museums

The final session of American University’s Feminist Art History Conference, cohosted by the National Gallery, brings together distinguished curators to discuss contemporary issues in museum practice. Lauren Haynes, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University; Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum; Asma Naeem, chief curator of the Baltimore Museum of Art; Christine Sciacca, associate curator, European art 300–1400 CE, Walters Art Museum; and Christina Yu Yu, Matsutaro Shoriki Chair, Art of Asia, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Moderated by Mikka Gee Conway, chief, diversity, inclusion, and belonging officer and EEO director, National Gallery of Art. Held in collaboration with the National Gallery’s John Wilmerding Symposium on America Art and the traveling exhibition Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful. In 1952, at age sixty-one, Thomas enrolled in graduate-level art history and painting coursework at American University to pursue “creative painting.” American University offers the Alma Thomas Award to an outstanding student studying painting. For the Feminist Art History Conference, Melanee Harvey will chair a session titled ACTIVISM: MAKING SPACE and Jonathan Frederick Walz will present a lecture titled "Alma W. Thomas’s Moving Pictures." Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy: https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

25 Jan 2022

51 MINS

51:22

25 Jan 2022


#987

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2021: Session II: Alma Thomas’s...

Presentations on Thomas’s studio art training and involvement with galleries, museums, and universities by Renee Maurer, Nell Irvin Painter, and Rebecca VanDiver, followed with discussion moderated by Steven Nelson Renee Maurer, associate curator, The Phillips Collection, and coordinating curator for Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful; Nell Irvin Painter, artist, Edwards Professor of American History Emerita, Princeton University, and Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor; and Rebecca VanDiver, assistant professor of African American art, Dean's Faculty Fellow (2019–2021), Mellon Faculty Fellow in Digital Humanities (2020–2021), Vanderbilt University, and Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor. Moderated by Steven Nelson, dean, the Center (Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts), National Gallery of Art. Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy: https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

25 Jan 2022

51 MINS

51:22

25 Jan 2022


#986

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration 2021: Session III: The Nation’s...

Presentations on Thomas’s aesthetic and social environment by Melanee Harvey, Margie Jervis, Marya McQuirter, and Thaïsa Way, followed with discussion moderated by Charles Brock. Melanee Harvey, assistant professor and coordinator of art history, Howard University, Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful catalog contributor, and American University Feminist Art History Conference session chair; Margie Jervis, artist and scenic designer, Creative Cauldron of Falls Church; Marya McQuirter, independent researcher, writer, curator, and scholar, faculty member, department of history and director of the Public History Collaborative (PHC) at the University of Arizona, with a joint appointment at the University Libraries, curator of the dc1968 project, author of the African American Heritage Trail Guide, Washington, DC; and Thaïsa Way, program director of garden and landscape studies, Dumbarton Oaks. Moderated by Charles Brock, associate curator of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art. Celebrate Alma W. Thomas's Legacy: https://www.nga.gov/learn/adults/john-wilmerding-symposium-community-celebration-alma-thomas.html Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks ... Read more

25 Jan 2022

51 MINS

51:22

25 Jan 2022


#985

Elson Lecture 2021: Mark Bradford

Working at the intersection of event and art, Mark Bradford explores social and political structures through large-scale abstract paintings created out of layered paper. Bradford’s reimagining of modernist art explores how historical analysis and research affect form. Discover how his map-like, multilayered paper collages provide an opportunity to think about power, representation, and marginalized communities. Learn more about Bradford’s work Legendary in the National Gallery of Art collection: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-ob... Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels? National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalle... National Gallery of Art | Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalle... ... Read more

17 Jan 2022

51 MINS

51:22

17 Jan 2022


#984

Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture 2021: Josephine Baker as a “Rememory” of Global Black Cinema?

In her 2021 Rajiv Vaidya Memorial Lecture, Terri Simone Francis reflects on Josephine Baker’s influence within the visual arts and theorizes Baker as both an international cultural figure and an African American film pioneer. Recent restorations of her films of the 1920s and 1930s have allowed her work to be seen in the context of recent cinema and media, indeed almost as recent cinema and media. In Francis’s view Baker exemplifies what author Toni Morrison called a “rememory”—a remembered memory. Francis’s study of Baker addresses absences and silences in film history, and she draws upon Morrison’s concept of rememory and Baker’s career to reconstruct the global beginnings of Black cinema. Ultimately, Francis is concerned with the film histories of the future, in which Black cinema history will be full of new unknowns, and believes that Baker’s authorship can inform new vocabularies of film thinking, film writing, and film feeling. ... Read more

05 Dec 2021

38 MINS

38:20

05 Dec 2021


#983

Wyeth Lecture in American Art 2021: Prioritizing Indigenous Communities and Voices: Curating in This...

In this lecture, released on December 3, 2021, Patricia Marroquin Norby (Purépecha), associate curator of Native American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), discusses her recent research and curatorial practices that affirm Indigenous representations. Dr. Norby shares her vision for and approaches to collecting, presenting, and interpreting Native American art at the Met and beyond. ... Read more

03 Dec 2021

51 MINS

51:22

03 Dec 2021


#982

Bonus Episode: Episode 11: Celeste Headlee and James Van Der Zee’s “Couple, Harlem”

In this photograph, journalist and musician Celeste Headlee hears “Lenox Avenue,” a suite her grandfather William Grant Still named after Harlem’s main street. This portrait captures the pride of Black Americans achieving success during the Harlem Renaissance despite systemic injustice. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts.html. Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app https://feeds.megaphone.fm/NGAT6207729686. Image credit: James Van Der Zee, Couple, Harlem, 1932, printed 1974, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, ©1969 Van Der Zee. ... Read more

23 Nov 2021

27 MINS

27:03

23 Nov 2021


#981

Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art 2021: “More perfect and excellent than men”

In this lecture, released on November 5, 2021, Babette Bohn of Texas Christian University discusses women artists in early modern Italy. Early modern Bologna was exceptional for its many talented women artists. Thanks to a long-standing tradition of honoring accomplished women, several attentive artistic biographers, strong local interest in collecting women’s work, and permissive attitudes toward women studying with male artists who were not family members, Bologna was home to more women artists than any other city in early modern Italy. Bolognese women artists were unusual not only for their large numbers but also for their varied specializations and frequent public success. They painted altarpieces, nudes, mythologies, allegories, portraits, and self-portraits, creating sculptures, drawings, prints, embroidery, and paintings. This lecture challenges some common assumptions about women artists, suggesting productive approaches for future research. This is the twenty-fifth annual lecture offered by the National Gallery of Art in this endowed series named after Sydney J. Freedberg (1914–1997), the great specialist of Italian art. ... Read more

05 Nov 2021

51 MINS

51:22

05 Nov 2021